I tried to walk towards it – wanting and not wanting to see – but it was like walking through molasses. I clenched and yanked and barely lifted my foot off the ground. The shape was impossible to make out.
Who are you?
Are you me?
I reached out, dragging my leaden legs and swiping my hands at the branches, trying to push them aside.Nearly there, just a couple more?—
“Maeve?” A voice called me through the briar.
I jumped, toppling backwards, my feet sliding out from under me on the dry ground. I hit hard, my head bouncing against the nearest stake, tossing my brain around inside my skull. The world spun and disappeared.
A rough hand shook me. I grabbed at it, allowing it to pull me up. My eyes flew open, my surroundings completely confused.Where am I? Where’s the briar? Where are the stakes? Why does the ground suddenly feel all soft and squishy?
“Maeve, are you awake?” Arthur whispered.
Awake?
My eyes adjusted, and I realised that I was tucked into a double bed.That’s right, I’m in the London apartment.
Something warm stretched out beside me. Rowan’s locs peeked out from a pile of blankets and splayed over my pillow, his arm draped over my side. Arthur crouched beside the bed, his thick fingers curled around my shoulder, his eyes wide with concern.
“I was having a nightmare,” I mumbled, reaching for my phone. My body trembled with the memory of the staked bodies.
Why did I have that dream again? Who is the sixth figure?
“I know. You were thrashing about.”
I moaned as I glanced at the clock. 11:05. I’d only been asleep for three hours. After our Turkish dinner, Flynn put a movie on, but Kelly had crashed out on the couch before the opening credits were finished – the jet lag finally caught up with her. Flynn and I tucked her in, and the rest of us decided to take advantage of the early hour to catch up on sleep. We hadn’t had much of it lately. Rowan crawled up in bed with me (Arthur didn’t even protest; he must’ve seen how badly Rowan needed the comfort), and I’d fallen asleep in his arms, as safe as I could ever hope to be in this mess.
So why was Arthur waking me now? And why was I having that horrible dream again, the one Blake had shown me all those weeks ago?
I bolted upright, suddenly terrified. “Did something happen? Is Kelly okay?”
“She’s fine.” Arthur patted my shoulder. “Get dressed and meet me in the lounge. I have a surprise for you.”
“Arthur—”
“You’ll love it, trust me. Come on, we have to hurry.”
As quietly as I could, I slid out from under Rowan’s arm and picked through my backpack for something to wear. Arthur hadn’t given me any details about this surprise, but he was wearing black jeans, his heavy boots, and a Blood Lust hoodie, so I assumed it was relatively casual. I threw on some skinny jeans and a lilac sweater and slipped out of the bedroom, tiptoeing around the couch where Kelly snored from a nest of blankets.
Corbin stood beside Arthur at the door of the apartment, also dressed in black. “You’re going to stick out like a porcupine in a nudist colony.” He indicated Blake’s new leather jacket lying over the end of the sofa. “Take that instead, luv. Trust me.”
I pulled on the leather jacket, sniffing the collar. It smelled like Blake – like fresh cut grass and burning incense and blood-drenched battlefields. As I poked my arms through the too-long sleeves, I felt as though I was donning a suit of armour.
Arthur grinned. “We’re ready.”
“But where?—”
“Ssssh!” Corbin grabbed my hand. We clattered down the stairs and out into the night. Sometime while I had been asleep the sky had opened up. Rain fell in thick droplets, drenching my hair. I wiped my pink bangs out of my eyes as we jogged past a club, the air briefly filled with driving dance music before the rain swallowed us again. The wet pavement reflected headlights and blinking signage on the bars and nightclubs, throwing up prisms of light like another city existing beneath the cobbles. My sneakers squelched as they filled up with water.
Black cabs lined the street, waiting for their next fare.Good, we can get out of the rain.But Arthur led us right past them. “It’s only a couple of blocks,” he said.
“Whatis?”
“You’ll see.”
On the next block, Arthur stopped in front of a kebab shop to fumble in his jacket. Something rumbled under my feet, vibrating beneath the sidewalk. I grabbed hold of Corbin, sucking in a breath as my stomach sank to my knees.The fae have come back.
